Katarina Douka

FINDER (www.finderc.org) is a research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) employing modern analytical techniques to address the lack of human fossils in the prehistoric record of Eurasia. The project’s main goal is to identify and analyse new Denisovan, Neanderthal and early modern human remains from sites spanning the past 200 000 years from places as far as the British Isles to Siberia and Papau New Guinea. We apply peptide mass fingerprinting (also known as ZooMS— zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry) on large numbers of morphologically undiagnostic bone fragments to detect bones with characteristic Hominidae peptide markers. These are then analysed using ancient DNA, radiocarbon and U-series dating methods, which enable full genomic characterisation and age determination of the new human fossils.   Note: Grant transferred to the University of Vienna (2021)